Come as you are, as i want you to be.

Raees Nadym: The Birth Story

My dear Raees Nadym is 1 month old today & we shall celebrate it by publishing my Birth story which took exactly a month to pen down because so many things to say. So yeah, read it only when you’re free cos it’s super lengthy.

6 January 2018 (Saturday):

I was busy preparing for Nadya’s 3rd Birthday Party (will blog about this soon!). Cleaned up the whole house, did up the deco & all. We started from 10am and ended by 9pm. Ordered McD for dinner and was supposed to go to sleep early but I couldn’t sleep at all. I only managed about 1hr of sleep. I didn’t feel any pain etc but i just couldn’t sleep.

7 January 2018 (Sunday):

Jumped out of bed by 8am, washed up & head downstairs to run errands & buy breakfast alone. Rusly kept asking why i didn’t wait up for him so we can go together but it was a short distance away so i thought it’ll be ok to walk on my own.

Party started in the afternoon and everything went well. I was feeling increasingly tired though. And really heavy. Also had Braxton hicks at some point but it wasn’t painful or anything so i ignored it.

The last guest left by 9.00pm.

10.00pm:

I could feel contractions coming & while they’re far apart (15-20mins), they were regular. I quickly told Rusly “i’m packing my hospital bag! Just in case.”

Rusly showered Nadya & prepared her for bedtime while i slowly pack my hospital bag in between contractions.

I posted this picture of my hospital bag on my IG Story. Sempat k. Actually if you follow me on IG, it’s so funny how things escalated so quickly. In the afternoon, i posted about Nadya’s party and then i posted about the hospital bag.. the next video, i happily announced i’ve given birth (and i sound so damn chirpy cos i was so high on gas.) HAHAHHA

11.00pm:

Both Nadya & me were on the bed while Rusly start cleaning up the house & rearranging the furnitures back. I remember hugging & kissing Nadya till she fell asleep on my arms. Rusly kept asking if we should head to hospital & i kept declining cos my contractions were only about 10 mins apart. I told him we’ll head over to the hospital when it’s 5-7mins apart. I don’t want to waste time in the labour ward when i can still wait it out at home. Also cos NUH is not thaaat far from home. Or so i thought.

I honestly thought it’ll take a while before my contractions progress to 5-7 mins. Even managed to convince myself “maybe i’ll only head to the hospital tomorrow morning.”

12.00 am:

But it only took me less than an hour to start having 5-7mins contractions and i was ready to head to the hospital. “Let me go take a shower & wash off my makeup 1st & then we’ll send Nadya to my parents place & then drive to NUH ok.” That was the initial plan. Konon nya.

I went in to the toilet to pee & saw fresh red blood. “B!!!!!! ADA DARAH!!!”

If we drive, then i’ll need to walk from the carpark at Kent Ridge to Main Building, where the Labour ward is situated at and the carpark at Main Building is under renovation.

So i told Rusly “we get Abah to pick Nadya up & then we Grab over to NUH lah.” That was only 5mins apart contractions k korang.. confident nya aku nak naik Grab.

We called my father to pick Nadya up & then i put in some last minute stuff in the hospital bag & just like that, within few minutes, i was down to 3mins contractions. It was so hard for me to talk each time contractions came. I had to pause & wait till the pain is over before i could blurt out whatever i can to Rusly.

At that time, for some weird reason, Nadya had a nightmare & started crying in her sleep! Tak permah2 k. Think she was so tired from the party or maybe she mcm tau things will never be the same again after that night. Kesian my baby.

Kesian also Rusly. Member busy trying to coax Nadya to sleep with his right hand and rubbing my back using his left hand. Also had to call my dad to come & pick Nadya up. Busy gila dalam bilik tu.

My parents arrived..rambut serabai.. dengan baju tidur all. Hahaha. But thank god they arrived before the Ambulance did cos kalau tak, mana kita nak letak Nadya seh and so kesian Nadya was so sleepy she didn’t realise the mayhem happening around her at that time but selamat that girl is a heavy sleeper. I cannot imagine if she wanted to follow us to the hospital or something.

12.35 am:

The medics came. I was so relieved to hear the sound of the stretcher wheeled out at my corridor. They had me up within seconds and then i quickly told them to send me to NUH cos i’ve called them up to expect me & my records are there.

Dekat corridor tu jugak they told me they have to send me to the nearest hospital as it’s their protocol and because their “nearest hospital” & NUH has a difference of 15 seconds in terms of ETA, they need to seek for approval to send me to NUH. All these happening kat corridor aku geng. All i could think of was “just send me to NUH fast!! Baby aku dah nak keluar laaaah“

Anyway they got the approval to send me to NUH once we’re in the ambulance while they were strapping me up to check my BP and all. I was still timing my contractions using the app and it’s 2mins apart now. Only Allah knows how tensed i was. I don’t want to give birth in the ambulance and i could feel adik pushing his way down!

To make things worst, i think this NSF guy who was trying to get my BP readings couldn’t get it right and kept reporting my readings as 150/150 which is hypertension level and my BP has always been fine all this while. Budak ni yang kasi aku tension tau. Twice, he reported my BP reading as 150/150 to his in-charge and the 1st time his in-charge said “eh tinggi nya! Kau betul ke tak? Check lagik!”

The 2nd time he was given the 150/150 reading, he said “bawak sini, aku check! Tinggi sangat tu!”

I happen to glance at the time on my phone while i was timing my contractions. 1 minute apart!!

Within minutes, we arrived NUH Emergency Dept and they wheeled me in through the many entrances to get to the labour ward.

1.03 am:

A Nurse saw me wheeled in and asked if I was the one who called in earlier.

“What’s your contractions like now?”

“1 minute apart!!”

“Hurry up push her in”

and just like that, I was in the labour suite already. It feels so foreign yet familiar. It’s been 3 years! I didn’t even realize my gynae, Dr Citra was not there yet. I was attended to by a young malay female doctor who was not as friendly looking as Dr Citra unfortunately but I don’t care lah i just want to give birth naoooo.

“You’re GBS positive and we’re supposed to give u two dose of antibiotics before u give birth but right now, maybe we can look at giving u one dose instead ok.”

I didn’t know i was GBS positive cos my appointment with Dr Citra was scheduled the following day, where she’ll tell me the result for my GBS swab tapi tak sempat. Lol

But guess what? They couldn’t even give me that one dose cos i keep telling them “Baby is coming out. I want to push now!” and the urge to push was so strong, i kept wanting to push even though the nurses & midwife was actually busy trying to prepare for my labour.

At that point, my waterbag has not burst yet and the resident doctor told me it’s fine.
“We’ll just deliver with the waterbag intact if it’s still there.” and guess what?
Minutes later, my waterbag burst, like really burst macam watergun. The nurse was walking in front of me when it burst nasib baik dia sempat elak. Hahahaha It was funny and if i wasn’t in pain, i would have laughed so hard.

Rusly lagik kongasam, he likened it to the birth scene from Ace Ventura.

He was actually scared that baby terkeluar gitu ok! Lucky it was only the waterbag!
So yeah tengah sakit2 gitu, when that happened, terus terlupa about the pain and i remember saying “omggg i’m so sorry!” to the nurses. Hahahaha

So back to me on trying to give birth ni, now the waterbag dah burst, the feeling to push the baby out is stronger. I could feel him about to slide out from me actually but they told me to wait & don’t push because they don’t want me to have a bad tear.

All this while, Rusly was pushing the gas mask on me. Not sure to relieve pain or to make me quiet hahaha. And believe it or not, i was actually waiting for more pain to come cos at 10cm dilated, it wasn’t as painful as my 6cm dilation with Nadya cos with her, i was induced with Pitocin and contractions were crazzzyyy.

Now i know why some people could do natural birth without epidural. Cos induced labour is so different & painful. And now i know why some people discourage induced labour. Without epidural, i have better control of my body despite the pain and was able to push (and stop pushing) as & when i want. With epidural, i couldn’t feel my legs much & just kept pushing blindly and it was so tiring! But that epidural was so helpful k time Nadya. I was actually prepared to take it again with Raees. Like give it to meeeee. Lol

So anyway, Raees came out after a few pushes, Alhamdulillah. However, they had to take him away immediately. I couldn’t do skin to skin nor delayed cord clamping like Nadya. He came out almost purplish due to lack of oxygen and because i’m GBS positive & received no antibiotic before labour, they had to check him for infection as well. His skin regained colour after few minutes with the help of the oxygen tube. But that was the start of his NICU staycation and those days felt really long..

He was diagnosed with Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn (TTN) due to the fast delivery i had, he wasn’t able to expel fluids from his lungs when he passed through the birth canal, causing him to have really fast breathing as he tries to get as much oxygen as he can. It’s so kesian to see him like that.

We had to go to and fro the Kent Ridge wing to the Main Building where the NICU is located at, to pass the nurses my colostrum and they had to tube feed him during this period.

This was actually the 1st time i got to see him & touch him.

I could only carry him on the 3rd day when his breathing was better and he didn’t have to depend on the oxygen tube to help him breathe. He also got cleared of all infections, cleared his hearing test etc & they moved him up to the normal nursery before discharging him the next day, Alhamdulillah.

The 1st day we brought Nadya to see Raees and she loves him from the start. Asyik nak touch & kiss him. It was too cute!

And just like that, i’m now a mother of two.

Anyway funny things that happened during labour, because i was so high on gas, when Dr Citra arrived & asked how i’m doing, i replied ” I FEEL SO AMAZING” sekuat2 nya. Rusly said i sounded so happy, chirpy and… pretentious. HAHAHAHA.

Amazing kebabai nya. Balik masuk ward, I FEEL SO SORE! hahahaha

And then another one that happened, after everything was settled and i was chilling on the bed, still high on gas, the nurse asked me “Sorry tanya.. are you Dyan the blogger?”
HAHAHAHAHAHHA.The high-on-gas Dyan replied YES! enthusiastically. Rusly tak tau nak letak muka dia kat mana. Hello Zulaiha! In case you’re reading this, thank you so much for your help & sorry about the waterbag again. HAHAHA.

So that sums up my birth story. Everything happened so fast, my only regret is we didn’t have any pictures or videos just like Nadya’s labour. But Alhamdulillah for the safe & quick labour.

Till the next post! i have so much to write about the 4th Trimester & Raees’s colic.